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Bay Area Home Sales Drop Near Record Lows

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area have dipped to their second-slowest pace in more than two decades.

The real estate tracking firm, MDA DataQuick, said Thursday that 6,100 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in October. That number dropped nearly 23 percent compared to the same time last year.

KCBS' Melissa Culross Reports:

Other than in 2007, the firm hasn't seen an October that slow since it began tracking the market in 1988.

The median sale price of $383,000 also is down 1.8 percent from October 2009. It's the first year-over-year decline in 13 months.

San Diego-based Dataquick blamed tight credit, worries about the economy and the loss of government stimulus for the housing market's downward turn in the nine-county region.

KCBS Interviews Chris Thornberg from Beacon Economics:

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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